


Over the years I have been submiiting records to the London and Essex Ladybird Survey. I was surprised to find that the Pine Ladybird (Exochomus quadripustulatus) does not appear on the species accounts and surveys and indeed I cannot find records of this insect on the site at all (maybe I am doing something wrong). The only reference I can find of the species in Essex, on the web is on the NBN Gateway maps where they are shown on the North Essex, Vice County Map in N.W.Essex. In recent years I have recorded an increasing number of Pine Ladybirds in the North Colchester and Mistley areas mainly on ornamental roadside trees. This increase seems to correspond to the enormous increase in scale insects in these areas. Is this a general trend in the county that is going unnoticed and unrecorded, and how best to record these and other species such as Kidney Spots encountered occasionally, but do not appear on species accounts.